A handful of neighborhoods on the North Side of Pittsburgh are poised to pop with more residential and commercial development.

The Northside Leadership Conference facilitates development in that area, which about a century ago was its own city, but today is part of Pittsburgh. The nonprofit is a coalition of 15 grassroots community groups that form the Conference’s board of directors. The areas have the benefit of being easily accessible to major highways, but are unlike many other residential markets in that neighborhoods vary so greatly from one another.

The group works mostly on smaller-scale projects in the neighborhoods to advance specific goals, but it also helps with job access, operates a newspaper and more as described by Mark Fatla, the Conference’s executive director.

“I have 15 micro-markets. I can’t sell a house on Beech Avenue, and then expect to do the same thing four blocks away. It’s a micro-market,” said Fatla, who also is an attorney.

The East Ohio Street commercial corridor specifically has transformed in the last few years, and will continue to do so, Fatla said. The heavily-trafficked business district is located just off of Route 279.

“We have a substantial investment on East Ohio Street and we’ve worked with private developers to improve that area,” Fatla said. “You won’t recognize East Ohio in three years. It will be radically different.”